


Scratch

by Porkchop_Sandwiches



Series: Wishbone [2]
Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Beach Holidays, Gen, M/M, Sequel, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 12:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10246010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Porkchop_Sandwiches/pseuds/Porkchop_Sandwiches
Summary: “Oh yeah, totally got you. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. What’s it going to be, Buddy? You want to bury me in the sand again tomorrow? Full day of piggyback rides? Hide your asparagus in my napkin again? Birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles at the pier?”A late-night, beach-house, kitchen conversation between Jesse and Holly, full of baking and secrets and slumber-partying. Sequel one-shot to "Wishbone."





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the September after "Wishbone," so not quite a year later.

It was too dark out for Jesse to see the ocean. But it didn’t stop him from glancing out of the kitchen’s big-ass bay windows every once and while ‘cause he could sure as hell hear it—that crashing water and wind and drag-you-down-heels-over-your-ass like _power_ -shit echoed everywhere like the whole place was one giant conch shell--and even though this was his second Lambert-White-Schrader Gulf trip, there was something totally bizarre about staying in a beach-front house. It was like after spending so much time like all land-locked in the fucking desert and shit, being so close to the shore made it feel like he was going to tip over. Something about it was like just as exciting as it was terrifying.

Jesse thumbed at his wedding ring as he let his hand hover over the cake on the closest of the three cooling racks—it needed another five minutes or so—and he was pretty sure the ocean was like way less scary and shit after watching a five-year-old literally swim circles around him. Holly was like a dolphin, just like splashing away in her orange and white ruffled bathing suit, going from a breast stroke to butterfly into some shit he couldn’t even name while he stood there with the water up to his chest. And it was totally warm even in September with like almost no waves, not at all like how Badger talked about visiting his mom’s family on the East Coast for spring break. He like allegedly almost got pulled in by the undertow when he ate it off his surfboard after riding “huge, sick-ass waves” for hours. Jesse was pretty sure that was bullshit considering how fucking terrible the guy was on his skateboard. But Jesse had still been totally jealous of the guy since he’d only been to the beach once. He was maybe seven or eight with his parents for one of his dad’s business trips in San Francisco, and they were like an hour away from the beach and his mom went to this gardening convention-bullshit. Jesse spent almost the whole time in the hotel room watching cartoons.  

They barely turned on the T.V. in the living room here, spending like the whole day outside hanging out in the water and taking walks and collecting these boss-looking sand dollars you could scoop right off the fucking sandy ocean floor. And those bitches were still alive too, or they were until you dried them out in the sun. Jesse didn’t really dig doing that so he let his go. But it was still kind of fun feeling them tickle his hand with this scratchy-fuzzy shit on the bottom that Mr. White definitely told him the name of but Jesse was too tired to remember. It was almost four in the morning. He’d snuck of out bed and downstairs to make Mr. White a surprise birthday cake from scratch and everything ‘cause Jesse was a total fucking sap and he like loved the dude or whatever.

Jesse checked the Devil’s Food cake recipe on his phone again to see if it was cool to take his frosting out of the refrigerator. And oh yeah, he for sure didn’t miss the like irony or whatever of making Mr. White a Devil’s Food cake ‘cause the guy had been a total asshole for a while. Maybe he wasn’t like _the_ devil, but Jesse couldn’t even imagine how shitty things could have been if they hadn’t gotten the fuck out of that business when they did.         

Popping open the door of this massive, chrome refrigerator kind of blinded him for a second before he could find what he needed and set in on the counter.

“Is that _icing,_ Buddy?”

Even if it was only whispered—in the sweetest, like most excited voice at that--Jesse still almost had a full-on heart attack.

He whipped around to see Holly squinting up at him in her matching pajama top and bottoms with the dogs in bikinis. She’d been wearing them every night and Jesse was guessing it was probably ‘cause the house they were renting didn’t allow animals and she missed Wishbone. Or maybe she just liked those pajamas.

Like regardless, he was a little bummed he wasn’t as stealth and shit as he wanted to be and like not wake anybody up. If it was going to be anybody, he thought it would have been Marie since she was usually up every few hours to feed Ezra. And yeah, the family had been pretty shocked when Marie popped out a boy. Or at least everybody but Hank who apparently was like in the same fantasy football league as their OBGYN and he’d told the guy if Marie convinced him that she didn’t want the sex to be a surprise then he should tell her the opposite. Marie had been pretty pissed ‘cause she bought a bunch of purple and pink shit, so Hank kind of comprised with Ezra since she’d wanted to name their daughter Esmerelda.

But really Jesse shouldn’t be too surprised that Holly of all people did wander in considering that even with the high-ass ceilings in this place, the whole damn kitchen smelled like he was sort of like hotboxing the fumes of Willy Wonka’s factory.

He eyed the glass mixing bowl and tried to think of something like unappetizing for a little kid. “Uh…maybe?”

Holly opened her mouth wide in like amazement. “Are you making daddy a birthday cake?” She bounced a little on her heels. “He’s going to be _so_ happy!”

Jesse smiled with a finger to his lips. “Keep it down, Buddy, everybody’s sleeping.”

Holly sheepishly popped a hand over her mouth and nodded. She seemed to think something over before reaching up for him with both arms. “Can I watch you finish the cake?”

Oh god, he really shouldn’t have like started this like habit or whatever. A couple of weeks ago Holly came over to spend the night while Skyler was doing this writing-panel thing over in Flagstaff, and Jesse thought it be an awesome idea to let Holly sit on the counter while he made like legit, homemade mac and cheese from scratch. She wanted to help so he told her to let him know when the water started boiling while he grated the cheddar. Nothing like bad happened but then she wanted to sit up there every time he cooked. Jesse wasn’t like an expert on kids but maybe it wasn’t like the dopest thing ever to have Holly close to sharp objects and like, you know, the stove.

But like nothing was on fire or even _on_ right now. Plus, she looked totally sleepy and warm and wrinkly and small and like sun-kissed and shit. He leaned over so he could pick her up and set her down on the marble-top kitchen island. She quickly pecked his cheek and giggled with her hand back over her mouth like she’s just spilled a secret. Mr. White thought Holly kind of had like a little-kid crush on him or something. Jesse wasn’t really convinced, but he definitely wanted Mr. White’s cake to stay a secret for at least another ten hours or so.

Setting out the fancy glass dish he planned on keeping it in, he placed the first layer of cooled cake down next to Holly and started frosting. Holly was staring like this shit was art, and he hoped it tasted half as good as she probably thought it did. He waited to get the second cake on before really trying to think of a way to keep her like cool and shit about his surprise. It wasn’t that she was a blabbermouth. But when anybody did something nice for somebody else and she found out, it glowed on the kid’s face like she was some kind of beaming ball of joy.

“Buddy, I know you’re excited about the cake, but nobody can know. You gotta be super secretive, alright? Can you do that for me, buddy?”

“Can you…scratch my back?”

Jesse nodded as he focused on smearing this stuff on thick ‘cause chocolate was a big guilty pleasure for Mr. White that basically only Jesse and Skyler knew about.

“Oh yeah, totally got you. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. What’s it going to be, Buddy? You want to bury me in the sand again tomorrow? Full day of piggyback rides? Hide your asparagus in my napkin again? Birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles at the pier?”

“ _No_ , Buddy.” Her voice was kind of strained. “Can you scratch my back? It itches and I can’t reach.”

Jesse looked up to see her right arm stretched about as far back as it could go and her face was all scrunched up.

“ _Oh, baby_ , I’m sorry,” he said. That got her laughing almost too loud ‘cause she always thought it was funny whenever he accidentally called her baby. “Yo, this good?”

He moved his nails up and down the place she’d been aiming for by her left, bony shoulder blade. And she sighed while her whole body folded over limp like the floppy stuffed puppy he’d discreetly bought her at a rest stop just past the Texas border on the drive here when he’d heard the bad news about Wishbone not being able to come.

“You’re way better at scratching backs than daddy,” she said.

“Oh yeah? ‘Cause I got more practice, right?”

Jesse actually fucking blushed when that shit came out his mouth, and he one hundred percent blamed being around Hank for too long ‘cause even though they’d been super chill about PDA—only holding hands a little--the guy had been saying snarky, homophobic, sex-joke-shit for days. It wasn’t mean, just real annoying. And Jesse may have had some sweet-ass revenge when Mr. White and him were rinsing off in their outdoor, fenced-off shower. The sun was about to set and the sky was like dark pink and Jesse was feeling romantic and shit. Their kissing turned into making out, which quick as hell turned into Mr. White taking their suits off and jerking them both in his hand, whispering shit like, “Naughty. Such a naughty boy, Jesse,” in his ear.

The shower wasn’t exactly squeaky fucking clean when Hank whistled his ass in there a couple of minutes later; dude deserved it. But _shit_ , that had nothing to do with the like here and now. First Jesse thought Holly was speaking like figuratively and then making cracks about him usually playing like catcher in the bedroom. He really was tired.

“You practice scratching backs?” She sounded amazed. “I practice piano sometimes. And I can play Yankee Doodle.”

“That’s awesome,” he said, rubbing her back ‘cause it probably wasn’t itchy anymore.

He pulled away and she didn’t say anything. She was still drooped over, blonde hair hanging down her face, holding her toes.

“I think turquoise is my new favorite color,” she said. Her toenails were painted like a neon aqua-turquoise color.

“Yeah? It looks good on you, Buddy. Totally pops with your new tan too.”

She sat up straight, chuckling. “I’m glad I don’t burn like Daddy. His back looks like a strawberry. The cake is going to make him feel so much better.”

Jesse carefully positioned the third and final layer on, and pointed at her with his spatula, dripping in frosting. “But, we’re not going to tell him about it until after lunch tomorrow, right?”

He left out the exact hiding spot in the fridge—behind the massive bags of kale Marie bought for her morning green shakes she’d yet to make—just to be safe and shit.

Holly nodded with her gaze like stuck to the spatula.

Jesse sighed even though he was totally smiling. “Just _one_ spoon, alright?”

He laughed ‘cause he swore she made the like most adorable surprise-face of like anyone in the whole damn world. Like shit, he offered the kid a little homemade frosting, and she was like beside herself in excitement, rocking back-and-forth.

Taking out a little spoon from one of the like fifty drawers in here, he skimmed off a small scoop and handed it to her.

“Thank you!”

“Go easy,” he said.

She just took a little lick, grinning before she took another. He was setting the glass, domed cover down around the cake by the time she’d polished off her first spoon and was working on the second one he may or may not have given her without like any prompting on her part. Once the cake was hiding in like kale foliage, he got his own spoon and joined her.

“It’s really good, Buddy,” she said. She’d somehow managed to get a small blob on her left cheekbone, and maybe Jesse was eying her too hard ‘cause she squinted and made this real weird face with her free hand up and curled like a claw. “Do I look like Mizmo yet?”

Jesse chuckled, squinting too ‘cause he had no idea what she was talking about. “Who?”

“One time Flynn and Louis were making chocolate chip pancakes at night time like _way_ after my bedtime, Buddy. And they’re cheeks looked kind of like daddy’s back but not so red and Louis was really thirsty and was drinking water out of this _huge_ glass bottle. I wanted chocolate chips but Flynn said if little kids had sugar after midnight we’d turn into a bad Mizmo and go _crazy_.”

Jesse laughed a little harder. “ _Oh,_ you mean Gizmo from _Gremlins_. Pssh, don’t listen to Flynn. You’re way too nice to be a bad gremlin. You’re way more like Gizmo: totally sweet and cute.”

She ruffled her own hair with a smile. “And fuzzy?”

“And fuzzy.” He gently rubbed the back of her head, hair so soft it sort of made his insides melt. She was so small. “But even fuzzy things need sleep, Buddy. You ready to go back to your room?”

She tapped her chin like she was thinking about something real hard, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “I won’t tell Daddy about his cake if you let me slumber-party tonight.”

Wow, so there was another like lingering thing from that time she slept over. Jesse got her using the phrase “slumber party” as like a verb and that verb definitely meant cuddling with him and Mr. White in their bed.

Jesse had totally been the one to cave on that one, which Mr. White kind of jokingly bitched about ‘cause they were newlyweds and shit. And they really were considering they’d made that shit legit at the courthouse just a few weeks before. Mr. White wanted to do it in August ‘cause he was out of school and Jesse wanted it at the courthouse ‘cause he wasn’t a chick who needed like a fancy-ass wedding.

They did have Holly there as both flower girl and ring bearer—wearing an orange dress with a matching bowtie--and Jesse also caught her mouthing along to the justice of the peace ‘cause she’d sort of had her heart set on like officiating it for them. Afterwards, they’d had a big backyard pool party with some family and friends. And maybe part of the reason Jesse didn’t want a ceremony had to like do with how he knew nobody on his side would show.

It was whatever ‘cause Mr. White let Jesse pick out their honeymoon trip, even when Jesse wanted to use the map this other professor gave them as a wedding gift and just throw a dart on that shit and go. It landed on some bum-fuck-nowhere town in New Hampshire. And maybe it was random, but the weather wasn’t as fucking hot as the ABQ, and they had some pretty cool tree-shit around the cabin they stayed in, and they were like basically naked in bed more than half the time.

They got back from New Hampshire less than a month ago, so he guessed they were still newlyweds, and Jesse was giving in again. But like the kid was totally smart. She had him right where she wanted him.

“Just tonight,” Jesse said.

She bobbed her head super-fast. And it wasn’t until he had all the dishes done and put up that she looked all that tired, rubbing her eye and yawning. He didn’t even need to tell Holly anything because she knew once he turned with his back to her to climb on up with her arms and legs around him. He hooked his hands under her knees.

“ _Slumber party_ ,” she whispered.

It sounded like all kinds of awed and sleepy and shit.

Jesse chuckled as he walked to the stairs. “Yeah Buddy, slumber party.”

\---

They caught Mr. White red-handed and everything.

“ _You’re not supposed to scratch sunburns, daddy_.”

Jesse quietly chuckled when Mr. White craned his neck back to glare at them from the foot of the bed. There was only like a little moonlight coming through one side of the curtains, but the dude’s red back was shining like the fucking embers of their bonfire earlier that night. And he was half naked with the blanket and sheet halfway down his back where he was scratching. From the dazed sort of look on his face, Jesse was betting he was only about half awake.

But he was like alive enough that the second he saw Holly, he smiled a little.

“Are we having another pajama party?”

Holly snickered, still hanging on Jesse’s back like a monkey. “It’s called _slumber party_.”

Mr. White made a kind of humming noise as Jesse turned and let Holly fall back against the comforter in a hushed fit of giggling. She was in the middle of the bed when he got under the covers. But she was still sitting up even when he laid down on his side.

“Yo Buddy, what’s wrong?”

“Can we change spots? I want to be behind,” Holly said.

Jesse could have like sworn he heard Mr. White mutter, “Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” He just rolled his eyes and scooted closer to the guy while Holly climbed over.

She pulled the blanket up to her shoulder, so like just above his elbow, which was nice ‘cause outside of the kitchen the rest of the house was sort of chilly. Marie’s body temp was like up way high post-baby so the A/C was cranked up way high too. Even with sweatpants and a t-shirt, Jesse wasn’t too hot when Holly got herself flush against his back and hugged him tight.

Mr. White leaned over enough to kiss Holly on the forehead, rub where Holly’s arm and Jesse’s chest overlapped, and give Jesse just a peck.

“Goodnight,” he said.

“Goodnight, Jesse. Goodnight, daddy.”

Holly snuggled into him a little more, and Jesse sighed ‘cause he was totally comfortable. The sheets still smelled all smoky and shit, and both him and Holly still smelled like chocolate so there was this nice s’mores thing going on, and the ocean noises were still swishing away.

“Love you guys,” Jesse whispered.

Holly kissed his shoulder and snickered. “Love you too, Buddy.”

Mr. White was watching them, smiling, and Jesse let his eyes shut. He held her warm, tiny hand as that feeling of floating on his back in the ocean kind of gently washed over him. It was almost like the bed was swaying. When he fell asleep, it didn’t feel like he was tipping at all.


End file.
